#BelgianGate: Investigation at risk as Qatargate
suspects turn the tables on prosecution
Eva Kaili and Francesco Giorgi have launched a media
and legal offensive.
BY ELISA
BRAUN, EDDY WAX AND GIAN VOLPICELLI
DECEMBER
14, 2023 1:59 AM CET
BRUSSELS —
A year into the biggest scandal ever to hit the European Parliament, two of the
highest-profile suspects in the corruption probe have launched an all-out
assault to bring down the investigation.
They may
very well succeed.
In media
interviews and court filings, Eva Kaili, a Greek lawmaker, and Francesco
Giorgi, her partner and a former parliamentary assistant, have accused
prosecutors of mishandling the investigation into allegations that lawmakers
and their accomplices accepted money from Qatar, Morocco and Mauritania in
exchange for influencing decisions in the European Parliament.
Kaili, who
denies any wrongdoing, maintains her advocacy for Qatar was part of her job as
a representative of the European Union and that the investigation into her
actions breached the parliamentary immunity enjoyed by sitting MEPs.
Her lawyers
have argued that the testimony provided by the operation’s alleged ringleader,
Pier Antonio Panzeri, as part of a deal with investigators, cannot be trusted.
They have described her treatment during police detention as “torture.”
Giorgi, who
has provided details of the operation to police, has claimed his statements
were extracted under duress. “Whatever Giorgi has declared or written during
his detention was under extreme pressure and preoccupation regarding the fact
that his daughter was left without her parents,” said his lawyer Pierre
Monville.
The
campaign even has a hashtag: #BelgianGate.
Kaili faces
preliminary charges of corruption, money laundering and participating in a
criminal organization after police stopped her father as he carried a suitcase
full of cash from her apartment. Giorgi, who faces the same charges, initially
cooperated with police, describing how he and Panzeri used money from foreign
countries to influence decisions in the European Parliament.
Two other
lawmakers, Marc Tarabella and Andrea Cozzolino, have also been arrested and
charged. They deny involvement in the scheme.
With the
investigation headed for rocky ground, lawmakers face the real prospect of
heading into next year’s European Parliament election with the corruption case
not just unresolved but noisily coming off the rails.
“The
Qatargate scandal undermined the reputation of the European Parliament in the
eyes of many EU citizens,” the EU’s Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly wrote in a recent
report about the chamber’s post-Qatargate ethics reforms.
“Ahead of
the European elections next year, the Parliament must now show that it is doing
everything in its power to protect its integrity and credibility,” she added.
Burnout
The
Qatargate investigation kicked off with the backing of the Belgian secret
services. It’s now relying on a handful of police officers on the verge of
burnout.
Only five
police officers are working full-time on the case, according to two people
familiar with the investigation. Michel Claise, the investigative judge who
pioneered the case, stepped down last summer over conflict of interest
concerns, even though he denies any wrongdoing.
On the
other side of the confrontation, Kaili has deployed some of Belgium’s heaviest
legal hitters, including Christophe Marchand, who has represented the Wikileaks
founder Julian Assange, and Sven Mary, a lawyer who has defended clients like
Salah Abdeslam, one of the terrorists who carried out the 2015 Paris attacks.
She has also hired a communication consultant.
Kaili’s
lawyers argue she was mistreated during her detention. She was imprisoned “in
the cold and was refused a second blanket,” one of her Greece-based attorneys,
Michalis Dimitrakopoulos, said. He added that the light in her cell was
constantly on, preventing her from sleeping and that she wasn’t allowed to
bathe even though she was menstruating. She was later asked if she would submit
to a polygraph test, a largely discredited form of evidence gathering,
according to a summary of her statements to police seen by POLITICO.
Lawyers for
suspects in the case have also pointed out that it’s highly unusual for an
alleged ringleader like Panzeri to be offered a deal in order to bring charges
against lower-level members of an operation, rather than the other way around.
Dimitrakopoulos
has noted that Panzeri and Giorgi were held in the same cell in the days after
their arrests, according to a letter to the general prosecutor and the
investigative judge seen by POLITICO. This could have allowed them to
coordinate their defense.
Uncharted territory
In
September, Kaili’s lawyers threw the entire investigation into doubt, after
they argued that the evidence against her should be ruled inadmissible because
it was gathered before the European Parliament voted to lift the immunity she
enjoyed as a lawmaker. A Belgian appeals court is expected to rule on Kaili’s
objections in the middle of next year, pushing any trial further into the
future.
“We’re
exploring uncharted legal territory here,” said a person familiar with the
Belgian case, who requested anonymity because they were not allowed to speak on
the record.
The
maneuver gave defense attorneys access to the investigative files, providing
them with ammunition with which to pummel the prosecution and information
allowing them to anticipate the lines of attack.
Kaili has
also petitioned the European Court of Justice to clarify rules regarding her
parliamentary immunity and asked the Parliament to re-examine its treatment of
her during the days before and after her arrest.
Prosecutors
retort that Kaili’s immunity wasn’t violated because she was caught red-handed
after dispatching her father out of her flat with a suitcase full of cash, a
claim she acknowledged during her first statements to police. “Eva Kaili tried
to hide and transfer funds,” the prosecutor in charge of the case said in a
note to the defense lawyers seen by POLITICO.
Prosecutors
say Eva Kaili’s immunity wasn’t violated because she was caught red-handed
after dispatching her father out of her flat with a suitcase full of cash |
Julien Warnand/EFE via EPA
Meanwhile,
Belgian authorities have been unable to pursue the suspects they accuse of
leading the corruption effort: Qatari Labor Minister Ali Bin Samikh Al Marri,
his aide Bettahar Boudjellal and Morocco’s ambassador to Poland, Abderrahim
Atmoun, all of whom are believed to have remained out of reach of the EU.
“The
justice system in Belgium has not moved fast enough, it seems to me, to clear
up this citation,” said Nikos Papandreou, from the Greek Socialists, in a
plenary debate on Qatargate on Wednesday.
“As long as
the perpetrators are not called to justice … we will not have clarity, we will
not have closure,” he added.
‘Competent authorities’
The trouble
in which investigators find themselves is a direct consequence of the EU
institutions’ inability to police themselves, said Antoine Vauchez, a law
professor at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) who has
studied the EU’s response to the scandal.
With no
powers of investigation, the Parliament is relying on overstretched Belgian
investigators.
“It’s as if
the EU didn’t have any specific protection or tools to protect public decisions
from corruption,” Vauchez said. “The idea that we need an external ethics
watchdog with real investigative powers and the ability to impose sanctions,
which would reflect a fairly strong response to the problem, has not yet
landed.”
Asked for
comment, the Parliament said it does not have the authority to look into
law-breaking by its members. “Parliament cannot make an internal investigation
on the possible criminal activities of MEPs or employees of Parliament,” said a
spokesperson. “But it can cooperate fully and promptly with the competent
authorities.”
Qatar and
Morocco have denied wrongdoing in the case and did not reply to requests for
comment. Kaili, Giorgi and Panzeri’s lawyers and the Belgian prosecutor’s
office declined to comment.
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